All out on November 30th- Put the boot into this government

The vote by UNISON, Britain’s biggest union, to take strike action on November 30 in defence of pension rights, with 245,358 in favour and 70,253 against, put the strike on course to be the most important such action for a generation. It is now by far the most significant initiative in the fight against the coalition cuts. It means that the around three million workers will be taking action on that day.

The strike is the product of several key actions taken over the past year which have pushed the movement forward. The first was the student revolt a year ago which electrified the struggle and exposed the lethargy of the trade union movement, which, despite conference speeches had still to take any form of action.

Then in March half a million turned out for the TUC London demonstration, making it far bigger and more militant than the organisers had anticipated. Around the same time UK Uncut emerged as an important and innovative direct action group.

This was followed In June by the highly successful strike by the teaching and civil service unions. This brought large numbers of young teachers and civil servants into strike action and onto the streets for the first time making it a game changer for the unions. The strike was a tribute to those in the teaching and civil service unions – not least Mark Serwotka of the PCS and left-wingers on the NUT Executive, who fought long and hard to deliver the action and make it a big success.

Now we have the November 30 strike which is a big step forward over previous actions.  Most of the teaching and civil service unions already have live ballot results which allow them to take action on November 30. These include: the PCS, the NUT, the UCU, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Welsh teachers union the UCAC. The EIS Scottish teachers union has already voted in favour.

Those currently balloting for strike action with results out shortly are: Unite, the GMB, the NASUWT teaching union, the NAHT head teachers’ union, the FDA civil service union, Prospect, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and NIPSA the Northern Ireland civil service union. Most if not all of these unions are expected to vote for strike action. Such united action has not been seen in Britain for a very long time.

Nor are the strikes just in defence of pensions – important as that issue is. It is widely seen as a strike against the whole of the coalition’s cuts agenda. People feel that it has been organised in this way to avoid the draconian anti-union laws which outlaw solidarity action.

The decision of the Government to offer some marginal concessions – a slightly better accrual rate and some protection for workers close to retirement – was an attempt to split the strike. The unions, to their credit, rejected them and decided that the strike would go ahead. It was also a sign of weakness. It was not a part of the plan. The plan was to face the unions down hard line and enforce their full terms. The offer was a clear sign that the coalition is losing confidence in its ability to see the struggle though.

The reasons for this are not difficult to see. They are shocked that they are facing a strike of three million workers at this stage and they are faced with the spectacular failure of their economic perspective, which, by whatever measure used, is falling apart in front of their eyes. They are facing the slide towards a double-dip recession no chance of the reversing it in time for the next election – which was the plan behind the coalition agreement. If they did not face a weak and compromised opposition, and did not have the media wholeheartedly on their side in the debate over the debt and the cuts, they would have been lucky to survive until now.

The coalition’s problems are compounded by the economic and political tsunami taking place in the Euro Zone, which threatens to overshadow and derail anything the coalition might do in Britain. This is exemplified by the catastrophe facing Greece, the contagion overtaking Italy, the imminent break-up of the Euro Zone, and the paralysis of the G20.

The crisis in the European Union has also triggered a remarkable revolt of Tory Eurosceptics, who are taking the chance to vent their nationalistic and xenophobic spleen. In fact Cameron is facing a bigger and more vociferous revolt than that faced by John Major in the 90s – the ones he called ‘the bastards’.

All this underlines the extent to which Cameron has swung the Tory party back to the days of Thatcherism and the rabid rightwing nature of recent Tory MP intakes. It is also politically divisive within the coalition with the hapless ultra-pro-EU Lib Dems caught in the middle of this mayhem disingenuously defending a coalition which continues to use them as convenient shields for Tory policies.

The lesson from all this for the trade unions and the anti-cuts movement is clear. This is exactly the time to pile on the pressure and build the fight back to its full potential. It is the time not only to maximise opposition to the cuts but is a real opportunity to put the trade unions back centre stage where they have not been for a very long time. The education unions were boosted by the strike in June. This strike can do the same right across the public sector.

The unions, therefore, have two important tasks for November 30. The first is to make the strike as solid and effective as possible. The second is the call for and encourage the widest possible solidarity action with it. This means calling on the whole of the labour movement and the anti-cuts movement to back the strike in any and every way possible. This means trade union demonstrations, student demonstrations, occupations, and protests of every kind in towns and cities right across the country.

An important new factor in this is the inspirational Occupy Movement with its highly successful tented presence at St Pauls in London and in other parts of the country. It brings to the struggle the spirit of Tahrir Square, the powerful example of the Arab Spring, and the image of mass popular movements bringing down brutal dictatorships which had been there for years – practical demonstrations of how such power can be successfully challenged.

But a big success on November 30, however, is still only a stage in the struggle, if a very important one. It is crucial that the dynamic and momentum of the strike is continued and the pressure maintained. This mean not only consolidating the gains of this action but preparing for the next. This is the best opportunity get to strike a serious blow against this government and it is important that the movement takes full advantage of it.

Education without jobs? Youth unemployment in Birmingham

Education without jobs? is a new pamphlet by Richard Hatcher, published by Birmingham Socialist Resistance. With a wealth of detail, it looks at unemployment trends and patterns locally and nationally, analyses both Coalition and previously, Labour policies and presents suggestions for an action plan for the labour and trade union movement to propose as an alternative.

You can read / download it here or get a printed copy from your friendly neighbourhood SR supporter for just 50p

So, how do we stop the cuts?

 Bob Whitehead poses a few questions for the movement…

Firstly, it helps to say that you are actually against them. And that immediately casts doubt that the Labour leadership, nationally and locally, could be part of the solution. Their “too deep too fast” attitude towards the ConDem cuts gives most of the ground away in advance. If they had been re-elected in 2010, they would have carried out a similar onslaught on the welfare state, but presumably, not-so-deep and not-so fast. “In his last budget before leaving the Treasury, Alistair Darling said a Labour government would halve the deficit by 2014, which would have meant cuts of 20% to those spending areas not protected – policing, schools and hospitals” (The Guardian 12/7/10). It is easy for Ed Balls in opposition to say that the target was too stringent, but we have to go on what they said before the election on the presumption of victory.

Merrishaw Fight Goes On!

 

Parents, children and supporters from “Stirchley and Cotteridge against the Cuts” protested once more today (24/8) outside of Merrishaw Community Day Nursery in West Heath. This lunchtime protest was timed to coincide with the open day, only two days before Merrishaw is set to close. Complete with flags, banners and chanting, the protesters let it be known in no uncertain terms that the Nursery must stay open.

 The three Northfield Councillors had been invited to attend, as was Richard Burden MP. Richard Burden gave his apologies but Reg Corns attended, took a tour of the site and talked to staff. He later addressed those assembled outside and said that the consultation had been totally unstisfactory, that no reply had been given, and that in his opinion the nursery was delivering a range of very important services to the area. He noted that time was very short, but he would do his best to move things in the right direction. Councillor Corns also said that Les Lawrence was the Councillor who would finally decide, and lobbying will now go strongly in that direction.

  There is also a meeting coming up with Chrissie Garrett, the relevant Council official. This will be between her and the campaigners, and will be held on Monday 5th September at 10am till 11.30am at Hamstead House, West Heath.

 Our campaign will go on for the maintainance of this essential local service. Keep Merrishaw open!

 

Coalition of Resistance conference report- 9th July 2011

By Bob Whitehead
The second national conference of the Coalition of Resistance was held last Saturday in London. The total attendance of three hundred was made up of 80% delegates and 20% visitors. There was a very good turnout of about ten travelling down from the Birmingham area; mainly people who have been active around “Birmingham against the Cuts”. The Green Left was also in evidence, and jointly proposed the resolution on climate change with Socialist Resistance.
As it was a delegate conference, it took on a different character than the much larger founding conference/rally that was held last year. It heard a wide range of inspirational speakers, such as John McDonnell MP, Wendy Savage (Keep our NHS public), Zita Holbourne (BARAC), Ben Hassa Mokhtar from Tunisia, Ted Knight, Mehdi Hasan (New Statesman), Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention), Alex Kenny (NUT), Barnaby Raine (School students against the cuts), Katy Clark MP, Paul Brandon (Right to Work) and Joe Malone (FBU). Other speakers introduced the discussions at the five workshops. Apologies were given from Tony Benn, who was at the Durham miners’ gala, Mark Serwotka, who was taking a breather from weeks of rubbishing Tory media spokesmen on pension cuts and from Caroline Lucas MP. A huge round of applause was given for the late Alf Filer, who made an inspirational fundraising speech at the initial conference last year, but who tragically died a short time ago.
Although the speakers were all good to listen to, it may, as so often happens, have been overdone. It was a democratic conference, where resolutions were tabled on request and debated fairly, but a bit more time could have been allowed to argue out some of the differences.
Yet this is not to carp too much. It was a good day; inspiring, informative, well worth travelling down for and a day that established the Coalition of Resistance as an on-going campaigning body. Fifteen resolutions were submitted, debated and voted upon and a new National Council of 50 was elected. Not bad when you consider the time given to speakers, workshops, breaks, and registration.
One of the burning issues of the movement is the need for unity against the ConDems. There are five national anti-cuts bodies in existence at present. How can this be justified? Talks are on-going with the People’s Charter and others about increasing coordination, yet a grand fusion does not seem on the agenda. A resolution calling for a unifying conference before the end of this year was defeated as premature. So, in a spirit of cooperation, time was given to the Right to Work speaker to explain why they were ploughing their lonely furrow. The explanation was unconvincing. Differences of emphasis were mentioned, but nothing that could not be contained within one campaigning body. Who benefits from this division on the left?
There was a division within the conference on whether to call for a General strike as the next step of escalation after the big successes of March 26th and June 30th. Two resolutions on this, from the SWP and Workers Power, were heavily defeated. It was felt that coordinated action across the public sector was within reach, but no more at this stage. We face the block on unity and breakthrough from the Labour Party dominated UNISON, UNITE and GMB.
The main resolution from the Steering Committee re-committed the COR to ‘opposing all cuts and privatisation of public services, the welfare state and the NHS’. This serves as a correct and welcome riposte to the “too deep – too fast”, pro-cuts position of the Labour Party. No one is against working with disaffected LP members where we can, but we must be clear what we stand for, otherwise how do you try and convince others?
The main resolution stressed that the ConDems had no democratic mandate for their attacks and this was forcefully echoed by Mehdi Hasan of the New Statesman. It also agreed to support; a second national demonstration against the cuts, a lobby and fringe meeting at the TUC, the national demonstrations at the Tory and Lib Dem conferences, the European Conference against Austerity and Privatisation on the 1st October (initiated by COR), the 8th October mass assembly in Trafalgar Square organised by Stop the War under the slogan “Welfare not Warfare” and to work with the People’s Charter to build a festival of resistance in the summer of 2012.
Other resolutions were passed on; how to work with the Trades Unions, against the Afghan war, how to elect the National Council (50 from conference + one delegate from each local and national anti-cuts affiliated organisation), supporting the campaign for one million climate jobs, opposition to nuclear power, for a youth specific COR conference, supporting the Bombardier demonstration in Derby on July 23rd and supporting a summit on the corporate media this summer. A resolution to base the COR purely on the local and regional network of anti-cuts groups was defeated.
The workshops were on; Crisis in the Eurozone, Unions and the Anti-cuts Movement, Fighting Privatisation, The Hardest Hit and Greening the Economy. The one on the Eurozone heard James Meadway from Counterfire claim that we are in an existential crisis of the Eurozone; it was all starting to fall apart, but we should respond with an internationalist, not a nationalist programme.
Some other points that were highlighted by the speakers included; September 2008 should be our constant reference point in a similar way that 9/11 has been theirs, the existence of a “Fair Pension for All” petition, the government had lost the argument over the affordability of public pensions, we were fighting to retain what our parents established, we should give full solidarity to all those sentenced over the last period for protesting and, in a concluding speech from John McDonell that brought many delegates to their feet, we should also aim to “destroy the system”.

SR Forum- The new war in the Middle East

Speakers
Fred Leplat, Stop the War Coalition and Socialist Resistance
Dr Sami Ahmed, Midlands Egyptian Society

Tuesday 17th May, 7.30pm
‘Bennett’s’, Bennetts Hill,
Birmingham City Centre,
B2 5RS

The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt constitute a historic turning point in the international situation. These revolutions change the rules of the game. They are the first revolutions of this 21st century resulting from the crisis of the world capitalist system.

Disabling Lives

Bob Williams-Findlay, Disabled Socialist and Civil Rights campaigner, outlines how the Government’s attack on public expenditure and the Welfare State increases the social oppression of disabled people.

Slash and burn

Earlier this year I addressed the Birmingham Against The Cuts Rally as a co-founder of the newly formed Disabled People Against Cuts(DPAC). We set it up to develop resistance, support, visibility and action against the financial assault on disabled people imposed by the Coalition’s spending cuts. October 2010 saw the first mass protest against the austerity cuts outside the Tory conference. It was led by disabled people under the name of The Disabled Peoples’ Protest. DPAC co-founders are the original Disabled Peoples’ Protest organisers.

Health Emergency!

Superb video on the NHS featuring John Lister…

Wake Up Call Episode 1 “No decision About Me Without Me” from Health Emergency on Vimeo.

Capitalism and Disabled People

Many thanks to Bob Williams-Findlay for delivering a stimulating meeting on the politics of disability last month.

If you missed it, here is a Powerpoint of his presentation.

Capitalism and DP[1]

Jaguar- An Opportunity Missed

by Godfrey Webster.

The  agreement with Jaguar has been presented as a great victory for the UNITE. Compared to the deal forced on workers two years ago at the depth of the recession it does seem attractive. The dropping for now of the proposal to close a plant in Birmingham is a welcome reprieve.

However the situation now is completely different. Jaguar cannot produce enough to meet the booming demand for luxury cars from the Far East, whereas in 2008 it was running out of places to store unsold cars.

This was a golden opportunity to get an above inflation deal and take back some of the conditions given away to save jobs in 2008.

Instead of doing this UNITE has accepted a deal where new workers are paid 80% of the standard wage and can only ever progress to 90%. Surely this was a chance to reject the concept of a two tier workforce and ensure that all agency and new workers are employed at the full rate for the job.

The increase for permanent workers still falls short of the Retail Price Index, and we all know that increases in fuel costs, food prices and housing costs are underestimated in the RPI let alone the Consumer Price Index. The increase in wages for the next two years are already being eaten up by gas , electricity, and petrol price rises, the increases in VAT  and housing costs, and cuts in benefits.

The truth is that the great “victory” is a serious setback for the long term standard of living of both permanent and agency workers. It will create a permanent division in the workforce which will harm the union. It will contribute to undermining the economic recovery by reducing demand by workers forced to make economies.

The deal fits in with the Coalition policy of making workers pay for a crisis caused by bankers and speculators. Unfortunately the Labour Party essentially supports this policy and it seems UNITE is not prepared to challenge it.

Len McCluskey is now confirmed as the new General Secretary elect, but his does no alter the need to build an opposition in the union demanding a change of direction. It is time for UNITE to face up to the situation, and lead a fightback against the constant attacks by the coalition government and employers on the conditions and organisations of workers.